Oct 29, 2013

       Sorry if you tried to check this and there was zilch.  My life has been full of glitches this week and I forgot about it, until here I am two days later.   Let this be a warning to those of you who think retirement always goes along smoothly.  It is still life, and that should explain everything.

        We have had gorgeous fall days!  The red of the maple tress has gone, but the dark  green pines and yellows of other deciduous trees still appeal to the soul.  Warm temperatures in the days, more and more chilly at night, but hard frosts still  only here and there.

Our skunk population has to be dwindling.  This statement  is made due to the number of carcasses along the highway, giving off their own special aroma.  It does raise a person’s awareness of their existence!

Kent and ReNae Egley went north to Alaska for a much deserved vacation.  They saw so much breath-taking scenery, mountains, glaciers; plus having some great getting-away time.  The stillness of great lakes and nature was just what was needed for this pair.

Victoria Taylor and Toni Cox of Hull, England visited with Jimmie and AnnaBeth Olson for five lovely days.  A favorite activity was riding the Olson’s 4-wheeler.  They took in a corn maze and enjoyed the Logan Temple.  The Olsons' intent was to show them the beautiful Teton Mountains, but due to snowy weather conditions the park roads were closed; the group got as close as Jackson, WY and enjoyed the scenery offered from that distance.

 Lauryn Hawkes, daughter of Robert and Liz Hawkes, has turned sixteen  and received the Mia Main certificate. She will now be in the Laurel class at the LDS Ward.

Shawn and Callie Beardall and their trio of children are up from Spanish Fork, UT, to enjoy the fall and hunting season with his parents, Kent and Tammy Beardall, and their family.  It is a family tradition, going back for years.

Ray and IlaRae Van Vleet of Grace are having a break during their mission service at the Heber Valley Girl’s Camp in Utah.  They dropped over to see their daughter, Tammy and Nelson  Coleman and family. 

Max Haws and his family have been up from California.  Mink Creek residents think of Max as the deliverer of avocados because he brings what extras he has from his crop in California to share with his Mink Creek neighbors.

A wild wind visited us one day this week for most of the morning.  The trees were whipping around in the style of Harry Potter movies.  One child commented that it looked like the branches were jumping rope.  Fall leaves marched southward, no obstacle was too big in their paths.  After hours of this, it quieted, and then the rain began.  A rather gloomy, but interesting, day.  Since then we have had a smattering of snow, but it has only stayed in the tops of our mountains.

Oct 23, 2013

Deer hunting season is upon us.  Mink Creek area is known nationally for its deer and we attract hunters of all varieties.  Some years ago this area was featured in the Sports Illustrated magazine as a home of mule deer.  Now one finds vehicles  parked willy-nilly up our back roads and in pastures while the hunt continues.

Maria Baird, daughter of Lana  and Ivan McCracken and the late Ronald Baird, was married recently to Devin Bryan Flake.  The ceremony took place at Rock Canyon Park near Orem, UT.  Her brother, LaRon Baird had the privilege of giving her away.   Later the couple was honored at a reception and dinner at the Sky Room of the Wilkinson Student Center on the BYU Campus. Along with Maria’s parents and LaRon’s family other siblings gathered were: Owen and Penny Baird of Bountiful, Madeline Baird of Brian’s family, Nathan Baird of Mink Creek, Annette Batchelor of Albuquerque, NM, and Tamra Taylor and family from Woods Cross, UT.

David Seamons, son of Jeffrey and Jennifer Seamons, was presented the Faith in God certificate, recognizing accomplishments in Primary.  He was ordained to the office of  deacon.  Both sets of grandparents live in Mink Creek:  Scott and Cathy Seamons and Joe and Kathy Jarvis.

Todd and Julie Kunz and children Kamri and Kreighton, of Idaho Falls drove down for a weekend stay with her parents, Layne and Karen Erickson.  Todd and Kamri enjoyed going to a USU football game in Logan while they were here.

The funeral of Arden Rasmussen brought many Rasmussen relatives home.  There was a great deal of reminiscing with friends and family.  Arden was the 6^th child born in a family of 15 children.  Six of these siblings are still with us. Arden and his wife, Sheila Stephenson, had four children, two boys, two girls and all of these families were able to be here for his burial.

Bob Erickson spent the first week of October fishing for salmon.  This is an annual trip taken with his brother Gary Erickson of Chubbuck, ID, and other friends.  It is always a fun time, no matter how large or how small their catch.  Now comes the task of smoking the slabs, but worth the work!

We now have pheasant hunting going on, along with the deer.  It makes a person wonder if it is safe to step outside with shots being heard from all directions.

Oct 16, 2013

The slopes of the mountains surrounding us look as if washed in red-orange paint as the maple trees predominate for a week or two.  Stations Creek, Bear Creek, South Canyon, Mink Creek, Birch Creek, Strawberry,  all have their share of color, Riverdale included.  Bits of yellow and fall’s bright green make it gorgeous.

At this end of Riverdale are a herd of cattle; among them are some that must be related to the Texas Longhorn, judging by the span of the horns they carry.  This is a motley bunch of bovines, blacks, browns, brockle-faced and those that pack a rack of horns.

Tyson Hall, son of Kristi and Brett Hall, was ordained to the office of an elder in the LDS Ward.  His brother Bridger came up from Logan to witness this event.  His grandparents: Sallee Keller of Mink Creek and Dallas and Deone Hall of Wellsville, UT. were in attendance.

Rico Crosland was awarded his Duty to God achievement certificate for services rendered during his Aaronic priesthood years.  He also spoke in the LDS meeting prior to leaving for the MTC in Provo.   After a few October days in that locality he will be flying to Auckland, New Zealand, to serve in the New Zealand, Wellington, Mission.

Macy Jepsen, eldest daughter of Kerry and Melinda Jepsen,  has received her mission call to Cambodia, Phnom Penh, Mission.  The call arrived at her home in Mink Creek and her parents were given permission by Macy to read it to her with a Skype communication while Macy is in Italy a little longer.  She will be leaving here in February.

Mike Dyer must be moving outside of our community.  His home is posted as rentable with the intention of buying.  There are several homes within our boundaries that are now available.

Karl and Marion Haws have enjoyed a lengthy visit with us this summer.  If they aren’t careful they are liable to receive assignments of community tasks for village activities.   Lately they have had one foot in California, one in Idaho, and yes, that is an mightyl big step!  Other family members have flitted in and out of the Haws home during the last few weeks.

The community wood project gets underway this time of year.  First there is the gathering and then follows the splitting of logs at various homes where the homeowners might not be able to provide the physical labor required to lay in the fuel.

Oct 9, 2013

Colors of fall enhance our valley, but there is no brightness, being muted this season.  It is like looking through a tinted lens that removes intensity of red, orange, yellow and lime green.  

There is no walking through fallen leaves, listening to the crunch, recent rains have softened those sounds.  For the upcoming hunting season those hunting will consider this a plus.

The Eldon and Danita Wilcox family is home from the Philippines where they traveled to attend their son Jesse’s wedding to Annavelyn Malate.  The wedding took place in the Manila LDS Temple. Being the last in the family to marry, as many relatives as possible traveled to witness this event: besides his parents there were  three sisters,Elise Hardy, Brittany Durrant, Ami with her husband Tom Fenton, and his uncle Forrest and Patti Christensen.  The group toured as much as possible in their two week stay.  Annavelyn’s family is from the Bicol region of the country, home of the Mayon volcano, a live volcano and very tall.  They swam in the ocean, visited a nearby island, did lots of shopping and visited friends of Jesse’s.  The Wilcox’s are a tall family and certainly stood out amongst the smaller Filipino people.   There were places they just didn’t fit!

 Riding on the pudjaks, bikes with a sidecar, a means of public transportation, was an event in itself.    They found travel crowded with many people walking on the roads, as a result it took a longer time to go between places.

The family took in some historical sites:  Corregidor Island, location of WWII battles, and the American Cemetery in Manila.  Here they were impressed with the perfect grooming of the lawns and the exactness of the monuments. They spent some time on Luzon Island. The group was there for two weeks and tried to take advantage of every day to tour as much as possible.   Their return flight to the states was held up for a few hours due to a typhoon that moved in.  Jesse and  Annavelyn are still in the Philippines, with Jesse  now called to serve as a counselor in a local bishopric.  This was a surprise to all, even though he had served a mission there several years past.  Not sure how the visa thing works in this situation.

My apologies to those of you who look for this blog on the same day that the newspaper comes out.  I was out of town for a couple of days and I forgot all about the blog for several hours.

So far we have had a wetter fall than usual.  It is cloudy and threatening as I post this.  But the big freeze has held off for some reason.  Just in the last few days have the more fragile flowers frozen.  I still have hopes of my chrysanthemums blooming once more if all is favorable.  They made it last year, perhaps it is too much to hope for two years in a row.

Oct 2, 2013

The youth and leaders had a very wet fall highway cleanup.  In a downpour, thunder rolling around our mountains, towards the end they needed car lights to find the trash. The occasional sheet lightning was not sufficient.  Refreshment were more than deserved.

Warren & Colleen Wilde have returned from a five day trip to Sacramento, CA, attending the Lewis Family Reunion.  Colleen’s brother Ben Lewis and his wife Julie are the Mission President and Mother of the Sacramento Mission and since they couldn’t be elsewhere the family took the reunion to them.  All the siblings and spouses were able to be there:  Lynn and Steve Cherrington were already there, serving a mission,  Beth and Bud Alford came from Idaho Falls, Bob and ReNae Lewis from Denver and Ann Stephenson and her son from Los Angeles.

Lorraine Christensen is home after a much extended stay of two months in Lafayette, IN.  She was there to give help and support to their daughter Carrie and Ken Melton with their expected baby arrived in June, well ahead of his September schedule.  He weighed 3 #, 4 oz and  dropped to 2 #, 7 oz, but is now about 9 pounds.  He will be named Thomas Henry Melton.  Big brother Kenny enjoyed a trip to the zoo with Grandma and helped pick blueberries.  A canning session went on with Carrie and Lorraine, yielding raspberries, apples, peaches, tomatoes and salsa. 

Tyson Hall, son of Kristi and Brett Hall, has received his call for an LDS mission to the Chile, Antofagasta, Mission.  He will be entering the Mission Training Center in Mexico in January, 2014.

Mary Jean Rasmussen and son, Kim Rasmussen, have been down in Centerville, UT, with her daughter Terry and Hayes Carr and family.  Grandson Kenneth Carr is soon leaving for his mission to Riverside, CA and extended family members gathered around for the occasion.

            The dampness of fall continues, the lawn keeps growing and the need for mowing hasn’t lessened one bit.  No hard freeze yet, although there are a few spots  up and down the village that show some frost damage.

            We have had some snow in our upper elevations, but it isn’t the sticking variety.  Forecasts this week sound like some of that might arrive in a few days.

            River McKay, daughter of Lin and Sharla is playing on the PHS girls volleyball team this year.  So far it has been a pretty successful season.